Earth-friendly plant protection is a finely judged art, but with a little ingenuity you can thwart the pests while providing safe passage for pollinators. Now it begins. Yellow daggers wait poised and patient at the doors. Sharp claws wrench blood-curdling screeches from the glass. Sets of vicious, hazelnut-honed incisors pluck and twang at the wire […]
Okay, many greenhouse flowers are described as ‘exotic’, ‘stunning’, ‘impressive’, etcetera but the Glory Lily truly deserves every superlative. Except that is for ‘robust’ and ‘enduring’ as I must admit I have lost several. Still these are so exotic, stunning and impressive it is always well worth getting another. Glory lilies are often sold in […]
Created by Olivier Blanc & Charlotte Salt, Henri Le Worm aims to remind children where food comes from and the important role that nature plays in its production. Henri encourages children to engage with food and nature in a fun and playful way. In the App “Henri Le Worm – The Missing Cookbook,” children are […]
I’ve always been astounded by the power of plants. Whether it’s the inherent medicinal properties of unassuming garden stalwarts, like willow bark containing an aspirin precursor, or wild garlic used by bears to deter fleas, or how the smell of lavender relaxes the inhaler. I could go on and on and I probably will. Nature […]
Somehow it is June, and yet the greenhouse is still full. Everything should be out and yet there it sits, or at least, a good deal of it. I can quite easily blame this on the cold weather: I have visited a few gardens recently where the plants were planted out ‘on time’ and now […]
A famous quote by Coco Chanel, the French fashion designer, says that “you get the face you deserve when you’re fifty” – a milepost I passed sometime ago. Thankfully I’m one of life’s enthusiasts who can see the funny side of almost everything. I wake at dawn, wanting to tear into the day, and I’m […]
June is an ideal time to sow fast maturing vegetables if your sowing season has been disrupted by late frosts and cold weather this spring. Spring onions, early carrots and salads can be sown regularly until August, making the next sowing when the previous seedlings have germinated, so there is still plenty of time for […]
When neonicotinoid pesticides were developed back at the turn of the 21st century, did nobody realise what would happen to the wildlife that ingested them? ‘Right, Holly – give it a good whack!’ As the tremor shuddered along the oak’s boughs, green blobs fell to earth, and startled blue tits fled to higher branches. Some […]
This stunning cool greenhouse flower gives off colours no pictures can capture. In the flesh Sparaxis blooms have an unmatched day-glow intensity of brilliance. You really have to see these with the naked eye to appreciate their luminosity. They’re pretty anyway and make excellent cut flowers as they last well. Sparaxis tricolour is now the […]
Staff on the Hartley Botanic stand at the Chelsea Flower Show welcomed a very special guest this week – Sarah is the granddaughter of Norman Hartley who together with his brother Vincent founded V & N Hartley in 1938. Sarah’s mother Elizabeth (Normans daughter) has spoken to Sarah of her memories of visiting Chelsea the year of […]
If you’ve ever grown potatoes or tomatoes, chances are you’ve experienced the blight that can affect them late in the season. It’s a fungus like infection spread by miniscule spore like microbes that are whipped around on the wind and thrive in a damp summer. Whole crops of tomatoes and potatoes can be totally wiped […]
Now here’s a sight to strike fear into the heart of any greenhouse owner. The greenhouse is full to bursting with healthy young plants, all waiting to head out into the allotment. Despite a few false starts and a couple of non-germinations it has been a productive spring, most things were sown around the correct […]
